338 EUROPE: A GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEY

developed system of schools and colleges has almost eliminated illiteracy,
and has aided materially in increasing the ability of the population.
Few people throughout the world have so successfully adjusted them-
selves to their environment as have the Danes.

The Occupations of the Population.—Agriculture is the princi-
pal activity of Denmark, as is shown by the fact that 34.8 per cent of
the working population is engaged in that occupation, while 27 per cent
is engaged in manufacturing and 16.7 per cent in commerce and trans-
portation. Even these statistics do not present a true picture of the
importance of agriculture, for most of the manufacturing is concerned
with the preparation of agricultural raw materials. Commerce and
transportation have always been important, and they remain so, as is
shown by the relatively large proportion of the population engaged in
those activities.

SITUATION

Denmark occupies a portion of the Jutland Peninsula and some
350 islands, only 100 of which are inhabited. It is really an arm of the
great European plain, reaching out toward the Scandinavian Peninsula
and almost blocking the entrance to the Baltic. The Skagerrak sepa-
rates the peninsula from Norway, and the Kattegat separates its north-
ern section from Sweden. South of the Kattegat the entrance to the
Baltic is blocked by a number of islands, the largest of which are Fyn
and Sjaelland. The former is separated from the peninsula by a narrow •
body of water known as the Little Belt, and from the latter by the
Great Belt. Sjaelland in turn is separated from the Swedish coast by
the Sound, a body of water which is only three miles wide at its
narrowest point. The possession of the peninsula and these islands thus
gives Denmark control of the natural entrances to the Baltic. Not until
the construction of the Kiel Canal was it possible to enter or leave
the Baltic without passing through Danish waters.

It was this fact that enabled Denmark to collect tolls for entry
to the Baltic, a practice which it inherited from the Hanseatic period
and continued until 1857. These tolls were collected at the old toll city
of Helsingor on the northern or narrowest portion of the Sound. It
was also responsible for the fact that Kobenhavn, on the southern or
widest portion of the Sound, became a great distributing center for the
Baltic territories. This is a natural point for the transshipment of
goods entering or leaving the Baltic. As long as this sea was the most
important body of water in northern Europe, Denmark occupied a most